Auto-bidding helps you win
At DoorDash Ads, our goal is to build tools that help advertisers run smarter, more effective campaigns. Auto-bidding for Sponsored Products is designed to do exactly that: advertisers set their budget and targeting goals at the campaign level, and auto-bidding does the rest — automatically adjusting bids in real time to optimize spend and win auctions at the lowest possible cost.
Always looking to innovate while driving meaningful results, Purina was excited to pilot auto-bidding and see its impact across their multi-brand footprint.
Smarter ads, happier tails
Purina is a recognized category leader with a long-standing commitment to pet health and nutrition. With a diverse portfolio, each product is designed to meet the specific needs of different pets, addressing the same factors that pet parents consider — such as age, breed, and dietary requirements — when they make choices for their pets.
The team at Purina consists of dedicated animal lovers who are always looking for new ways to be the first choice for pet parents and to deepen their connection with their customers.
Redirecting time toward strategic aims
With more than 30 sub-brands across several pet Categories from food to treats and litter, Purina’s advertising strategy is complex. Each sub-brand targets a different type of pet parent — from puppies to seniors, and from general wellness to specialized nutrition. Needless to say, the team needed more time to focus on strategic efforts like ad targeting and messaging, which led them to auto-bidding.
To explore how auto-bidding might fit into their broader ad strategy, the team launched a test across their dog and cat treats Sponsored Products campaigns. While only running a portion of their total campaigns on DoorDash, the test provided valuable insight into how auto-bidding might unlock greater efficiency and time savings over time.
“Auto bidding really helps us make sure, in real-time, that our bids are competitive without having to be in the platform every hour. Taking away the need to be so involved helps us focus more on other areas and make sure that our strategies are on point.”
— John Perri, Senior Media Manager, Flywheel Digital
Results that unlock new customers and opportunities
Purina’s results at-a-glance:
-32%
Cost-per-Click
+54%
Return on Ad Spend
+86%
New-to-Brand Sales
Purina saw promising results and is optimistic about expanding auto-bidding across their campaigns.
Two key metrics the team is particularly excited about are return on ad spend (ROAS) and new-to-brand (NTB) customers — because together, they tell a broader story. With auto-bidding driving CPCs down by 32%, Purina was able to get their ads in front of more pet parents for the same budget. That increased reach didn’t just drive more immediate sales — reflected in a 54% increase in ROAS — it also expanded the funnel, helping attract 18% more NTB customers and 50% more sales.
For Purina, NTB performance is especially important: it gives visibility into where new customers are entering the brand portfolio, so the team can build strategies to keep them engaged over the lifetime of their pets.
The Purina team is excited about the ongoing partnership with DoorDash and the opportunity to keep testing, learning, and growing together.
“DoorDash is exciting because it's very active, very communicative. There's a lot of opportunity, a lot of optimizations and capabilities in the works. And we're trying to test all of them to see what's the right mix for us to be there when the pet parent is searching for our products.”
—Brian Etling, Paid Search Specialist, Nestlé Purina North America
